For Immediate Release
31 January 2000
KENTUCKY LEGISLATION LEGITIMATIZES DISCRIMINATION BY CHURCHES IN STATE AGAINST JEWS, GAYS, AND SECULAR HUMANISTS
Proposed legislation in the Kentucky House will allow religous organizations to deny other groups access to their rental facilities under the public accommodation law if the group's religious or philosophical tenets are not "consistent with the religious tenets of that religious organization."
The legislation, House Bill 70 sponsered by Rep. Thomas Kerr, has already passed committee and will soon be debated on the floor of the House.
The legislation was inspired by the 1996-1997 rental of a Baptist camp, Bullittsburg Baptist Assembly Camp, by Camp Quest, a summer camp for secular humanist children.
Camp Quest was founded in 1996 by Mr. Edwin Kagin, a northern Kentucky attorney and former Eagle Scout, who felt a summer camp for secular humanist children was needed to counter the discrimination of the Boy Scouts against non-theistic children.
Rep. Kerr was asked by the Northern Kentucky Baptist Association, a coalition of 66 northern Kentucky Baptist churches, to introduce the legislation in January, 2000, so they would be able to refuse access to their facilities if they object to the religious or philosophical tenets of the potential renters.
The legislation amends current Kentucky public accommodation laws and appears to violate Federal constitutional protections against the establishment of religion.
Thomas Kerr and other Republican members of the Kentucky House have also just introduced House Bill 485, which further erodes protection of civil liberties of minorities in Kentucky by prohibiting cities and local communities from passing ordinances against discrimination.
Opposition to both bills is being led by Rep. Kathy Stein, of Lexington, Kentucky, who believes these bills are national test cases for further dismantling of church-state separation and the legitimatizing of state-sanctioned religious discrimination against minorities.
Contact information for Mr. Edwin Kagin and Rep. Kathy Stein, and a summary of news articles, editorials, and letters about the controversy, are available at the following website: